AN: Still can't claim ownership on anything, and still loving you all for your support.
A bit of world building this week, we'll return to the story with next chapter.
CHAPTER 8 - Turn back time
Rose Potter had always been a perceptive girl: she could always feel if those around her were good or bad people, or if they were burdened with sadness. That, and only that, caused her first bout of accidental magic and the first awakening of her spark: it took her a grand total of two hours to understand that Vernon and Petunia Dursley weren't good people to those they perceived as different, and she wanted her loving parents back, so she went away. It seems that her magic found the Nalaars to be as close to the Potters as can be. So while the Dursleys died in the massive fire that was released upon her first planeswalk, she was found and adopted as Chandra Nalaar.
But how did things turn out without a Rose Potter in the wizarding world?
Albus Dumbledore discovered her disappearance the same day, as soon as Miss Figg called him over. He immediately thought of dark wizards, possibly Death Eaters, kidnapping the savior of the wizarding world, even if nothing pointed in that direction. The good headmaster spent the following nine years searching for Rose, even involving the ministry and the aurors. They didn't find her, so he decided to drop his plans to start molding her to her destiny of vanquishing Voldemort through the debacle with the philosopher stone in 1991.
Rose Potter's disappearance influenced Sirius Black too, who discovered it only in 1984. He lost one of the only thoughts keeping him safe from the dementors and soon succumbed to their effects. He died two years later, leaving everything to Rose and one Remus Lupin.
Nicolas Flamel never gave his precious stone away. He and his wife Perenelle still live peacefully in a secret location.
Quirinus Quirrell, always the scaredy cat, got so perturbed by Rose Potter's disappearance that he refused to leave the safety of Hogwarts wards. He kept teaching Muggle Studies.
Being the only applicant, Gilderoy Lockart was hired to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts in 1990.
Voices in shady corners spoke of a dark ghost hiding in the deep forests of Albania, but nobody went to check on them.
In 1992 Lucius Malfoy implemented one of his master's plans, or so the diary had said, and gave what he thought was a cursed item to Ginny Weasley, hoping to get some filth out of the school.
The diary was actually one of Voldemort's horcruxes and it manipulated Ginny into trying to kill as many unworthy wizards as she could by releasing the basilisk like fifty years before. Unfortunately for Voldemort, this time Mirtle wasn't a killable crying mess but a ghostly one, so when she saw Ginny opening the Chamber of Secrets, she reported her to the headmaster before any deaths. The diary got destroyed in the end.
Ginny Weasley was only eager to learn magic. She put her trust into a magic diary and paid the consequences. The diary had done such a massive amount of damage that she got admitted to 's permanent mental ward a scant few months into her first year at Hogwarts.
Despite his courses being essentially useless, Gilderoy Lockhart kept his position as a teacher, to the dismay of other professors. There simply were no other applicants for the job except Severus Snape, potion master of Hogwarts. Since there were no applicants for potions either, his request was rejected.
Peter Pettigrew, better known as Scabbers the rat, kept living his life as Ron Weasley's pet, with no one knowing of his real identity.
In 1993 finally Hogwarts had a new applicant for the Defense position so Dumbledore hired Remus Lupin. Not even Severus Snape protested if the alternative was Lockhart.
Despite his dismissal from his previous job, Gilderoy Lockhart's books kept selling well until late 1993, when Hermione Granger, a bright muggleborn witch, exposed him as a fraud in an anonymous letter to the Daily Prophet. He was thoroughly investigated and later convicted for his crimes.
In the same year, Barty Crouch Jr. escaped his father's clutches and left Britain in search of his master. He found him in Albania.
Barty Crouch senior fell into a deep depression that left him party unable of doing his duties. Young Percival Weasley was promoted to the post of his Senior Undersecretary.
In the summer of 1994, wizarding Britain hosted the Quiddich world cup final. Unfortunately, during the after match festivities, a group of Death Eaters decided to don their mask and spread some terror, for old times' sake. During the commotion, a returned Barty Crouch Jr. was ordered by his master to cast the Dark Mark to attract attention of the misguided Death Eaters, so he stole a wand and did so. Some of the dark wizards fled fearing their master, some other heeded the call.
Ron Weasley's day went from good –he had seen Victor Krum up close– to horrible when his wand was used to cast the Dark Mark in the sky over the stadium. Since the Ministry "had to be seen doing something", as minister Fudge put it, Ron was summarily arrested and shipped to Azkaban to spend six months in the dementors' tender care. In the minister's defense, it wasn't that believable that Ron's wand got stolen, used to cast the Dark Mark, and then returned to his pocket.
Molly Weasley, suffering the loss of her youngest son so soon after her daughter, fell into depression. In her pitiful state, she failed to notice Scabbers while moving some furniture and killed him. No one noticed.
In order to save face on international level, minister Fudge proposed to reinstate the Triwizard Tournament, albeit a safer version. Dumbledore saw an opportunity to use the fabled Goblet of Fire to bring Rose back, so he supported the idea. Those loyal to the dark lord supported the idea too, because their master said so.
Since Remus Lupin was a great teacher, lycanthropy notwithstanding, he kept his job. Severus Snape tried to get him sacked but failed spectacularly when the families of many students demanded the werewolf kept his position.
In the same summer, a bill was passed by the conservative faction of the Wizengamot preventing ghosts from teaching, so professor Cuthbert Binns was dismissed after four hundred years of honored service and Narcissa Malfoy was hired. Her job as a plant for the Dark Lord was to rig the Triwizard Tournament to send the best champion to fuel Voldemort's resurrection ritual, it mattered little whoever it was. When Rose Potter, or Chandra Nalaar since she had taken a new name, appeared in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, Narcissa's mission became to get her through the tournament and to Voldemort, for surely the Girl-Who-Lived was the best candidate.
Victor Krum, Fleur Delacour and Cedric Diggory were all excited of having been chosen as champions and all pretty confident in themselves. After "meeting" the fourth champion and seeing her ignite a piece of wood wandlessly and wordlessly they were a bit less confident but all equally decided to show her they weren't to be ignored like she had.